Hold Congress Accountable

About FreedomConnector

Find activists, groups, and events right in your own neighborhood. Join FreedomConnector to get involved and learn more about key issues threatening our economic freedom. Whether you’re looking for like-minded people, trying to boost your existing group’s impact, or simply trying to stay up on current events, FreedomConnector is the place to start. See what’s happening in your state today!

Search FreedomWorks

Resources

Blog

Should seniors have the freedom to opt out of Medicare?

In February 2012, a federal appeals court ruled that Medicare is a “mandatory entitlement,” which means that if a senior citizen doesn't want to be part of Medicare, the senior will lose his or her Social Security benefits. According to this ruling, in order to receive Social Security benefits, the elderly MUST also be enrolled in Medicare (specifically, Medicare Part A hospital insurance).

Our representatives in Congress never voted to tie Medicare and Social Security together in this way. Unelected bureaucrats in the Clinton administration made this regulation in 1993, and the Bush administration continued the policy.

The Clinton-Bush regulation is incompatible with a free society. Seniors are being forced to accept inferior-quality health insurance in order to receive their Social Security benefits. They’re trapped. In a free society, seniors would be able to choose between Medicare and private health insurance without penalty.

Solution: Retirement Freedom Act

To solve this problem, I urge you to contact your congressional representatives and ask them to cosponsor the Retirement Freedom Act. Introduced in the Senate by Sen. DeMint of South Carolina and in the House by Congressman Sam Johnson of Texas, the bill would allow individuals to choose to opt out of Medicare. (The bill numbers are S. 1317 in the Senate and H.R. 2435 in the House.)

The Retirement Freedom Act will restore seniors’ personal liberty to maintain a health care plan of their choice and save taxpayer dollars in the process.

The bill would eliminate the link between senior’s Social Security benefits and Medicare. This means that a senior could opt out of Medicare and still receive their Social Security benefits.

It's good to be honest Joshua but it's not good to form opinions based on nothing but political ideology and rightwing propaganda. There are very good reasons why all citizens have to be coerced into playing their part in a capitalist system. Learn about that Joshua and your opinion may change.

When it comes to MY healthcare, I will make decisions for myself, not the FEDERAL government. What part of this Constitutional approach to healthcare do objectors to opting out of Medicare don't understand?

Dennis, your misunderstanding, as with others who think like you do, is in thinking that all the money you make is yours. It's not Dennis. If it was then there would be no money for building roads, etc.

No Dennis, you haven't thought it through yet. The capitalist system is not all about you making money off the sweat of other's labor, it's about all people sharing the sweat of their labors to make a system work. And it can work Dennis!

Also Dennis, if you think I support people's rights to not buy healthcare insurance then you have it wrong. The whole point is that if people are allowed to take a chance and then sponge off of other taxpayers when they fall ill, then the system will continue to fail. And Dennis, there's no doubt the US heatlhcare system is failing. Not to mention that it's costing people like you who want to keep all their money a lot of 'their' money.

Behind door #3 Monty....glad to see your concern for taxpayers when it comes to people exercising their rights to not purchase healthcare, but it obviously goes out the window when it comes to taking the money I sweat for and giving it to second and third generation welfare recipients. Government can do it better with my money, since the Great Depression, followed by failure after failure = DOGMA

It's not a lack of understanding James, it's an understanding of what the consequences would be for people without healthcare. And of course it's an understanding of how other taxpayers have to foot the bill for those who don't buy insurance.
It becomes a simple matter of those concerns trumping the imagined violation of people's constitutional rights. That's why your dogmatic approach fails James.

Oh please, give it up for gawd sake. Obamacare is going to lower the cost of healthcare for everyone and start to make healthcare affordable. Even republicans were for pretty much the same as Obamacare before Obama did it. The arguments for argument sake are old and tired now. Obamacare is a reality that's here to stay. America will be better for it and so will the taxpayers.

Freedom works! Freedom from the expense of paying for the health care of useless louts who won't buy insurance will also work. Celebrate it and forget that it doesn't suit your politics. It suits your pocketbook!

Fewer and fewer doctors in the US are self-employed, and more employed by hospitals. That is a direct result of government policy, sharply accelerated by Obamacare. The trend will be damaging to American health care. It is still possible to reverse the decline, but powerful forces want it to continue.

A recent report out of Mesa, Arizona demonstrates the inevitable negative consequences of supposed problem-solving government programs. Audrey Glemba, a 49-year-old triathlon runner, became a medically-retired police officer collecting worker's compensation for an injury she claimed prevented her from working. Taxpayers in her city are now paying her $508 a month, in addition to medical retirement benefits.

Democracy and Power 105: The Politician Seeks PowerThe desire to rule is the mother of heresies. —St. John ChrysostomIn America, a politician intentionally selects to enter politics. They seek power in the name of public good, but predominately they seek power. When a person enters Congress or the Presidency, they seek and use the coercive power of government.

Late last week, the Obama administration announced a month-long push back for second-year Obamacare enrollments, placing the enrollment date conveniently past election day. With that move, the administration will successfully push back the horrifying optics of disastrous rate hikes, lending a hand to Democrats up for election in 2014.

October has not been kind to Obamacare. The first of the month was the date under the law when we were to see the exchanges in place, and when we were supposed to be able to see all the savings created by the law. And yes, all of this was going to happen under the promise that if you liked your doctor and your health plan, you could keep them.

Democracy and Power 103: Government MoneyIn general, the art of government consists in taking as much money as possible from one party of the citizens to give to the other. —Voltaire (1764)Politicians transfer money from productive people to favored special interest groups.

Personal Freedom and Prosperity 102: Acquiring and Possessing PropertyThat all Men are born equally free and independent, and have certain inherent natural Right…; among which are the Enjoyment of Life and Liberty, with the Means of acquiring and possessing Property, and pursuing and obtaining Happiness and Safety. —Virginia Declaration of Rights (1776)

On today’s edition of the FreedomCast, Avik Roy joins me to discuss the latest on the ObamaCare debacle, how unions, employers and the government itself is pushing back on this law and why the government health care leviathan may survive even the ObamaCare crumble.

Despite the legislation’s intention, many people will be barred from Obama’s promises about insurance because the bureaucratic control mechanisms are just too costly. His political lackeys are even running scared from ObamaCare rate increases, the very same increases they swore would never happen.